Archived questions
and their answers
from our ever so popular column:
"All you ever wanted to know about bettas"

support our betta self help
library!

TOPIC:
unstoppable fin rot

Q:
Have you ever a betta with fin rot that you could not stop? I
have tried almost everything and nothing seems to working! The
water parameters are perfect and I am losing my mind over this.
Help, help, help!!!!

TOPIC:
bettas yawning

Q:
My bettas seem to yawn sometimes, they open their mouth and flare
their gills a bit for just a second. I'm not worried about it but
was just curious if this was common and if you've noticed them doing
this because I didn't think fish yawned.

TOPIC:
betta unable to eat properly

Q:
What causes a Betta to have trouble getting a hold of his food? I
have had him for one year. Is it a sign that he is getting
old?

TOPIC:
betta beaching itself on plant

Q:
My betta's housed with 2 African dwarf frogs for 6 months with no
problem. Feed dried blood worm & brine shrimp. He's
beaching himself on a lily pad. What should I do?

TOPIC:
betta not active when owner leaves

Q:
My coworkers say that my Betta is not as active when I'm out. When
I'm in the office, he swims, eats, and works on his bubble nest. Do
bettas really learn to recognize their owners over other people?

TOPIC:
breeder color

Q:
HELLO!! I was just wondering is it better 2 spawn a male betta with
red and pink as colors or is it better 2 spawn a colorful betta that
has many diff colors??????

TOPIC:
breeding double tail bettas together

Q:
I love DT bettas and have been hearing that you can breed two DTs
together, and that you cannot because its bad. So which is
true?

TOPIC:
betta in a vase with bamboo plants

Q:
What is your opinion in having a large vase with bamboo in the
center, covered by marbles with one well taken care of betta?

TOPIC:
treating bettas for fin rot

Q:
You suggest treating
Bettas for Fin Rot with Neosulfex or Bettamax for a month, do you
keep applying fresh doses of medication every three days during that
month even if they're looking better?

TOPIC:
finding betta jars

Q:
Hello, I was just
preparing to breed my bettas and it hit me that I need a lot of
jars! (duh!) My question is where can I get that many jars all at
once, where do you get yours? ~thanks~ Josh

TOPIC:
betta canibalism

Q:
Hi Faith, thank you for
taking the time to build this very informative site. I just
found my fry (5 weeks) catching and devouring one of its siblings.
I like to avoid jarring them all because of the large number of
containers needed, is there another better way to separate them and
prevent this from happening again. Thank you

TOPIC:
evaluating betta age

Q:
How do you know how old
your betta is??

TOPIC:
sick betta

Q:
I've had my male betta for
2 1/2 years, and lately he has spent most of the time at the bottom
in a vertical position, only coming up for air. He is not overfed,
but his fins look shorter. Is it a sign of aging?

TOPIC:
females fighting

Q:
I thought it was safe to
keep females together. I recently acquired a female betta and
I put her in my female community tank. In less than 1 hour, 3
females were torn to shreds and there is plenty of hiding space.

TOPIC:
betta rubbing its face

Q:
My new betta seems to
enjoy rubbing just his nose along the glass of his tank a *lot*. He
doesn't rub against anything else and seems to prefer one wall over
the others - should I be worried?

TOPIC:
torn fins

Q:
I have two bettas in a
minibow 2.5 w partition. Recently the Male betta has torn fins and
the fins are getting more and more torn. He is on bettafix. Did the
female do this to him?

TOPIC:
marbles in betta jars

Q:
Is it okay to put colored
marbles in a bowl/jar with a betta?

TOPIC:
air pumps

Q:
What kind of air pump do I need for two round undergravel filters
4" diameter for my two 1 gal. bowls? Or would I just need
to control the airflow, if so how? Thanks =) Love my Bettas!!!I

TOPIC:
sick betta

Q:
I put two male bettas in a 2.5 gal tank w. divider, one of them is
very happy (bubble nest, swimming, eating) the other will flare but
then lays on bottom only swimming to get air. Is he sick?

TOPIC:
breeding pet store bettas

Q:
I know your general feelings on the topic, but would an otherwise
young, healthy, and very uniquely colored petstore betta be worth
breeding at all?

TOPIC:
hyperactive betta

Q:
I just moved my betta from a 2 gal. hex tank to a 5 gal. with
filter. He is swimming quickly, flaring and constantly working on
bubble nest. Is he happy or stressed?

TOPIC:
swollen eye and lip

Q:
My Betta has swollen lips, one enlarged eye (popeye?), and not
eating. I do have him in Fungus Clear right now. What
else can I do to save him??

TOPIC:
female bettas size

Q:
Do female bettas grow as big as male bettas?

TOPIC:
fry food

Q:
I once got a batch of 100 fry but they don't sell microworms in
Singapore. I only had BBS so I fed them that. However only 8
survived but they were all very small even at the age of 5 months.
Why?

TOPIC:
torn fins

Q:
Some moron threw a bunch of Bettas in a tank together and they all
died but Ned. I have smuggled him out and want to know how to care
for his mangled fins. He seems otherwise active.

TOPIC:
cleaning fry tank

Q:
I
do water changes in my fry tanks but I can't help but to suck up fry,
which kills them. I attached a sponge on tube, but fry get sucked
into the sponge and die because they are so fragile. Please help!

TOPIC:
breeding pastels

Q:
Dear Faith, I have a
pair of blue and a pair of pastels and the blue male has great genes
as does the pastel female in your opinion would it be wise to breed
these two?

TOPIC:
bettas biting

Q:
If I hold a Betta in my
hand will it bite me and if so does it hurt bad?

TOPIC:
treating tap
water

Q:
Hello Faith, how long
(days?) does the tap water need to be treated before my betta can be
put in his new tank? Thanks ;)

TOPIC:
bettas
fighting
and not
eating

Q:
I just picked up 2 new
bettas. They're in a hex tank, but they are always fighting (gills
flaring etc). I've tried to feed them, but they ignore it. Will they
eat eventually or fight until exhausted?